In d ex



(No Model.) 2 sheets-sheet 1. H. A. STEPHENSON.

INDEX. No. 408,361. Patented Aug. 6, 1889..

play nf light. l

76 76 77 B2 9| 9| s2. 92 s4 94 94 se s6 9e 9e es COUNTERBALANCE.

Illini (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

' H. A. STEPHBNSON.

INDEX.

No. 408,361. Patented Aug.. 6, 1889.'

HHH

Ill

MAN 325m.

lm u Hu u IMI N. rusas. nmlnhugnhn. wnhingxu", p. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

I-IAEVEY A; sTEPI-IENsoN, or ALLEeI-IENY, PENNSYLVANIA.

INDEX'.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 408,361, dated August6, 1889.

Application iiled April 2, 1888. Serial No. 269,278. (No model.)

To @ZZ whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, HARVEY A. STEPHEN- SON, of Allegheny, in the countyof Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and usefulImprovement in Indexes; and I do hereby declare the following` to be afull,clear, and exact description thereof.

My invention relates to an improvement in indexes for dictionaries,directories, an d other books of reference, and the Bible, its objectbeing to save time and labor in referring to them, and thereby to maketheir use Inore convenient and less laborious. It is illustrated in theaccompanying drawings,y in which-` Figure l shows Iny improved indexsystem applied to the page of a dictionary. Fig. 2 shows it applied tothe page of a book of a Inercantile agency. Fig. 3 shows it applied to apage of the Bible.

The Inain feature of my invention is to provide a dictionary or otherwork on `each page or on a convenient number of pages with anabbreviated tabulated reference-index arranged on the margin, so that aperson glancing at it may be able to tell approximately on what page ofthe book he may find any given word, name, division, or subject.

Referring to Fig. l, the margin of the page is shown provided with fourlines of characters and with the capital letter 0. This illustration isdesigned for a page of a dictionary on which are words whose initialletter is C. all the letters of the alphabet arranged in order, and onthe first line above these letters are arranged numbers 1, 30, 52, dce.,indicating the pages on which begin words whose initial letters arestated in the second line immediately below. Thus a reference to thisindex shows that words beginning with the letter Il begin on page 193 ofthe dictionary, that words beginning with the letter S begin on page373, &c. These two lines are preferably,therefore, printed on theInargin of each page in the book. The third and fourth lines varyaccording to the place in the book. The case illustrated is when theindex is on pages containing words whose initial letter is 0. Lines twoand three show that the words whose first two letters vare F Ga On thesecond line of characters arebegin on page 52, that the words whosefirst two letters are Cu begin 0n page 100, &c. The fourth line isdesigned to indicate words whose first two initial letters are f Co,because such words are more frequent than any others among the Cs. Itshows, for example, that words beginning Cob commence on page 74, wordsbeginning Com commence on page 77, (inc. By adding other lines the indexmay be carried out to indicate the first four or five letters of wordsor names, if desired.

By arranging the index as I have stated, the work of referring to thedictionary or any alphabetically-arranged book is very much shortened,because wherever the book is opened the first two lines will show to thereader on what page to find words of that initial letter which he is'seeking, and on turning to that page the index on it, which indicates bythe second and third lines the place of words having the first twoletters of the desired word, will show in nearly every instance theexact page on which the desired word may be found.

My invention is susceptible of many modiiications both of mechanicalarrangement and adaptation, to suit reference-books of various classes.Thus, instead of printing the index horizontally at the top of the page,it may be arranged vertically along the side.

In adapting the invention to directories the arrangement is the samepractically as that in dictionaries; but in its application to the booksof mercantile agencies and the like it is somewhat modified in form, theprinciple remaining the same. In such cases the words in the book arearranged in classes under the names of States and 'Territories Thusunder the title of Pennsylvania are arranged alphabetically sub-titlesof cities and towns in that State, under which are arranged inalphabetical order the names of the business firms domiciled in thoseplaces, and so with the other States and Territories. In order,therefore, to apply the marginal index to such a book, as shown in Fig.2, I arrange the first two lines of the index vertically along themargin at the side of the page. On the first line of the index I placethe abbreviated names of the States in alphabetical order,

ICQ

and on the second line, immediately next and opposite to the names ofthe States, are placed the numbers indicating the pages on which beginthe names of towns alphabetically classified under the respectiveStates. Thus a reference to these first and second lines, which may bethe same on every page, shows that the names under the head ofPennsylvania begin on page 1294, that the names under the headCalifornia begin on page 46, 85o. For convenience in arrangement I printthe other lines of the index horizontally along the top or bottom of thepage, and these lines vary according to the place in the book. Theillustration given in the drawings shows a page taken from theclassification under the head of the State of Pennsylvania. The secondhorizontal line shows letters of the alphabet in order, which aredesigned to indicate the initial letters of the towns and villages inthe State. Thus to find the page of the book on which begin the names offirms doing business in Pittsburg I refer to the letter P on the secondline, and by looking at the number on the first line immediately abovethe letter P I find that the first page of the Ps is page 1374. Thesefirst two lines are the same on every page in the book under the head ofPennsylvania As a further subdivision of this index, I may add two ormore lines, of which the third (supposing the page to be among thosewhich contain the names of places in Pennsylvania beginning with theletter P) has arranged in order under the letters ofthe second line thefigures indicating the numbers of the pages on. which are classifiedplaces whose names begin with P and whose second letters are indicatedby the second line. Thus a reference to this line shows that names ofplaces in Pennsylvania whose first two initial letters are Pa begin onpage 1374, that names of places whose initial letters are Ph(Philadelphia, for example) begin on page 1376, &c. The third line isthe same on every page under the head Pennsylvania containing thesubdivisions of places beginning with the letter P, and it variesaccording to the initial letters'of the subdivisions.

The fourth line indicates the subdivisions of business firms under thenames of large cities whose initial letter is indicated by the capitalletter at the left of the series. In the example shown in the drawings Ihave taken the city of Philadelphia. A reference to this line shows thatthe list of business firms in that city the initial letter of whosenames or styles is B begins on page 1378, those whose names begin withthe letter S begin on page 1407, &c. Suppose now that itis desired toascertain the standing of the firm of Smith & Jones, a firm doingbusiness in the city of Philadelphia. By opening the book at any pageand glancing at the vertical lines on the side margin of thepage it willbe seen that the general divisions of Pennsylvania begin on page 1294.Turning now to page 1294, the horizontal lines at the top show that thesubdivision of places whose initial letter is P begins on page 1374.Turning to page 1374, the third horizontal line indicates that thesubdivision of places whose initial letters are Ph begins on page 137 6,and on referring to this page and finding any of the pages containingthe classification of Philadelphia the fourth line shows that the listof firms in Philadelphia whose initial letter is S begins on page 1407.

The principle of my invention may be further carried out in cases oflarge cities by adding other lines giving the second letter of thefirm-names; but I deem the examples which I have shown and described tobe sufficient to make clear the nature of the invention. In case of thesmaller or less thickly populated States or Territories (for example,Texas, New Mexico, &c.,) it is not necessary to carry out the index asfully as I have shown it. In such cases the-first two of the horizontallines of the index would be sufficient. The fourth line is only used toindicate the subdivisions in large cities.

For convenience sake I arrange the first two lines vertically on thevertical margin of the book and the other lines horizontally on theupper margin of the book; but they may be otherwise arranged to suit theconditions of the particular case to which the index is applied.

In Fig. 3 I show the application of the system to the Bible. The numberof books in the Bible is so large that they cannot be convenientlyarranged in a single column. I therefore divide them into two verticalcolumns, one of which, containing in alphabetical order the books of theOld Testament, is

placed on the outer margin of the left-hand page, and the other,containing in alphabetical order the books of the New Testament, isplaced on the outer margin of the right-hand page. Beside each of thesevertical columns is a second column indicating the page of the Bible onwhich begin the books indicated in the first column. These verticalcolumns are the same throughout the Bible. Thus a reference to themargin at any place at which the Bible may be opened shows that the bookof Amos begins on page 564, the book o f vI Kings on page 231, the bookof Matthew on page 597, the book of Acts on page 683, &c. The otherlines, which are preferably printed horizontally, vary with theparticular book of the Bible.

The case illustrated is taken from a page in the book of Matthew, andthe two horizontal lines which I have shown are printed on every page inthat book. In the first lineare arranged in order the numbers of thechapters, and on the second line, immediately below, are the numbersindicating the pages on which begin the chapters indicated in the lineabove. Thus, having found the book of Matthew on page 597, we find thatchapter 14 begins on page 606.

IOO

IIO

IIS

By obvious modiiications, such as will suggest themselves, the marginalindex may be applied to encyclopedias, lexicons of all languages, andgenerally to books of reference of every kind. Its utility is manifest,and Will be appreciated by those having occasion to use such booksfrequently. It is si1nple,'easy to use, and as it is printed with therest of the book, it can be applied Without materiallyincreasing thecost of the book and Without disiguring it. If desired, the index whichI have shown may be used in part by using on each page of a dictionaryor other book the first two lines shown in Fig. l Without more; or thesecond and third, or the second, third, and fourth, lines may be usedalone on the margins to indicate the second and third letters of Wordsunder the general alphabetical divisions, and in such cases the firstline indieating these 'general alphabetical divisions may be omittedaltogether, or it may bc arranged once at the beginning of the book orin a number of places in the book, as may be desirable. This ,samemodification may be applied to the books of mercantile agencies andother books Where the divisions and subdivisions are so numerous as tomake it difiicult to arrange them all on one page.

Another` feature of my invention consists in placing at the upper cornerof the page of a book the Words or book divisions, beginning and endingon the page or abbreviations thereof, together with the number of thepage, arranged vertically one over the other. This aords a very readyWay of nding a desired place in a'book, and is of great convenience. Ishow it in Fig. l.

I claim- 1. A book having on one or more of its pages a marginal indexcomprising, iirst, an initial character or characters; second, a line ofletters alphabetically arranged; third, a line of number charactersarranged with relation to the letters in the rst-named line to indicatethe pageon which the combination of the initial character and the letterof the first line appear, and, fourth, a line of number charactersarranged With relation to the alphabetline to indicate the page Whereeach alphabet letter becomes an initial letter, substantially as and forthe purposes set forth.

2. A book having on one or more of its pages a marginal indexcomprising, -first, an initial character or characters; second, a lineof letters alphabetically arranged; third, a line of number charactersarranged With relation to the letters in the iirst-named line toindicate the page on which the combination of the initial character andthe letter of the first line appear; fourth, a line of number charactersarranged With relation to the alphabet-line to indicate the page whereeach alphabet letter becomes an initial letter, and, fifth, a line ofnumerals arranged in relation to the alphabet-line to indicate insuccession the pages Where combinations of the initial letter and tWo ormore letters of the alphabet-line will appear, substantially as and forthe purposes described.

` In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 2d day of March,A. D. 1888.

HARVEY A. STEPHENSON.

Vitnesses:

W. B. ConvviN, I. K. SMITH.

